20.6.17

Trump says China tried but failed to help on North Korea

U.S. President Donald Trump (L) and
China's President Xi Jinping walk along the front patio of the
Mar-a-Lago estate after a bilateral meeting in Palm Beach, Florida,
U.S., April 7, 2017.
REUTERS/Carlos Barria

President Donald
Trump said on Tuesday that Chinese efforts to persuade North Korea to
rein in its nuclear program have failed, ratcheting up the rhetoric over
the death of an American student who had been detained by Pyongyang.Trump
had held high hopes for greater cooperation from China to exert
influence over North Korea, leaning heavily on Chinese President Xi
Jinping for his assistance. The two leaders had a high-profile summit in
Florida in April and Trump has frequently praised Xi and resisted
criticizing Chinese trade practices."While
I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help
with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried!"
Trump wrote in a tweet.It was
unclear whether his remark represented a significant shift in his
thinking in the U.S. struggle to stop North Korea's nuclear program and
its test launching of missiles or a change in U.S. policy toward China."I
think the president is signaling some frustration, he’s signaling to
others that he understands this isn’t working, and he’s trying to defend
himself, or justify himself, by saying that at least they tried as
opposed to others who didn’t even try," Christopher Hill, a former U.S.
ambassador to South Korea, told MSNBC.U.S.-CHINA DIALOGUEThe Trump statement about China
was likely to increase pressure on Beijing ahead of a U.S.-China
Diplomatic and Security Dialogue on Wednesday.The
talks will pair U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense
Secretary James Mattis with China's top diplomat, State Councilor Yang
Jiechi, and General Fang Fenghui, chief of state of the People’s
Liberation Army.The State
Department says the dialogue will focus on ways to increase pressure on
North Korea to give up its nuclear and missile programs, but also cover
such areas as counter-terrorism and territorial rivalries in the
strategic South China Sea.The U.S.
side is expected to press China to cooperate on a further toughening of
international sanctions on North Korea. The United States and its
allies would like to see an oil embargo and bans on the North Korean
airline and guest workers among other moves, steps diplomats say have
been resisted by China and Russia. In
a sign that U.S.-Chinese relations remain stable, a White House aide
said Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, White House senior
adviser Jared Kushner, were invited by the Beijing government to visit
China later this year.Trump has
hardened his rhetoric against North Korea following the death of Otto
Warmbier, a University of Virginia student who died on Monday in the
United States after returning from captivity in North Korea in a coma.

'A DISGRACE'In a White House meeting with
visiting Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko, Trump criticized the way
Warmbier's case was handled in the year since his arrest, appearing to
assail both North Korea and his predecessor, U.S. President Barack
Obama.

"What happened to Otto is a disgrace. And I
spoke with his family. His family is incredible ... but he should have
been brought home a long time ago," Trump said.State
Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the United States holds
North Korea accountable for Warmbier's "unjust imprisonment" and urged
Pyongyang to release three other Americans who are detained.Trump's
tweet about China took some advisers by surprise. A senior
administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the
United States had limited options to rein in North Korea without Chinese
assistance.White House spokesman
Sean Spicer said a meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim
Jong Un is less likely following Warmbier's death.Spicer
said Trump would be willing to meet Kim under the right conditions, but
that, "clearly we're moving further away, not closer to those
conditions."